


Water-fly

by planet_plantagenet



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Comfort, Fencing, M/M, osric is a cinnamon roll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 14:35:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7761691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planet_plantagenet/pseuds/planet_plantagenet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Dost know this water-fly?”</p><p>Laertes’ POV. Set between 5.1 and 5.2</p><p>In which Osric attempts to flirt with Laertes, who is amused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Water-fly

_“Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing: indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.”_

  


Out of breath, I collapsed onto the bench, wiping the sweat from my brow. I returned my foil to the bag, and began unlacing my shoes. Fencing required loads of fancy footwork that left my feet sore.

Just as I reached behind me for my water bottle, I spotted a man leaning against the doorframe, watching me with a small smile. He looked about my age, probably slightly younger, and was wearing a blue woolen sweater and a striped green knit cap. His black hair stuck out from under the hat at odd, messy angles. He started as soon as I noticed him, grinning sheepishly and his cheeks turning bright red.

“Hello?” The greeting came out sounding like a question. The man’s eyes widened and he blushed an even deeper scarlet.

“Hi,” he squeaked.

I suppressed a laugh. “What’s your name, then?”

“Osric….” His reply was hesitant.

“Cool. I’m—”

“Laertes.” He completed the sentence for me, then immediately cast his eyes downward, embarrassed. “Uh… I know your name.”

“Oh?” I gestured Osric towards the bench. He didn’t move. “How would you know that, then?”

He shrugged, an attempt to be nonchalant that ultimately failed. “I… well, I’ve heard some stuff about you, you know…?”

“What sort of… stuff?”

“Things,” he replied, as if that were an elaboration on the point.

 _Are you always this awkward?_ I wanted to ask, but bit back the rude remark. Instead, I motioned again for Osric to come sit. He shuffled over, hands folded behind his back, and perched next to me on the bench, his eyes fixed pointedly on my fencing bag. Anywhere, it seemed, but on me.

“So,” I began, for Osric was obviously too nervous to start any kind of conversation, “you’re interested in fencing, are you?”

He glanced at me, grinned, looked away. “Uh… not really. It’s just. Um.”

“You like watching me?”

Osric’s sweater was slightly too big for him, and he twisted the sleeves around in his hands as he hesitantly answered. “Yeah… I do….”

I once more resisted the urge to laugh. “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess.”

He nodded distractedly, looking back at me, studying my face. This time he didn’t turn away; instead, he inched closer. His eyes were bright green with flecks of brown—really quite beautiful. He was cute, and obviously besotted with me. Could I afford to take my chances…?

I dismissed the thought. The last time I’d fallen for someone, jumped into a relationship too fast, they’d ended up breaking my heart and leaving me bitter.

This time Osric spoke first. “So… uh… are you practicing for any reason? Fencing, that is.”

“Yeah. I have a duel tomorrow.”

His eyes widened. “A duel! With who?”

“Hamlet.” I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice.

“The prince!”

“Yeah. Him.”

“Why?”

I sighed. “He’s… he’s a confused person who’s done a lot of bad things.”

“What kind of bad things?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

There was silence for a moment, then Osric peered up at me and asked, “Was he… I mean… were you…” He made a motion with his hands. “...Were you together…?”

I almost grinned. “I guess you could say that. It was a while ago, though, you know.”

“Did something happen?”

“A lot of things happened, Osric, some more recent than others. Hamlet’s hurt me in a lot of different ways. I just… need him gone.”

Osric’s eyes widened. “Gone? You mean…?”

I nodded slowly. “Gone.”

“Couldn’t you just… talk it out with him?”

“Sometimes I wish I could. But Hamlet’s beyond reason.”

Osric didn’t speak for a couple seconds, and when he did it was a whisper. “I think… I think you’ve been wronged, and you’ve been hurt, and you’ve been angry… and that’s okay. But… you’re talking about revenge. And I don’t know; that might be justified.” He reached his hand up to touch lightly against my cheek, eyes fixed upon mine. “But… I think what you really need… is some empathy and love.”

Slowly, almost hesitantly, Osric leaned forward and gently pressed his lips against mine. His hand was cold, but his face was warm. I almost flinched. I barely knew this boy. But to hell with it, I thought—I sure needed some comforting right now. So I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him back.

No one had shown this type of affection towards me for a very, very long time.

After a second, he pulled away, blushing, his inherent awkwardness settling in again. “Um. Well. That was nice.”

“Yeah.”

Osric stood. “Uh… I have things I need to do. I should… um….” He gestured towards the door.

“See you around,” I replied, a smile flickering across my lips.

He grinned back, sweet and innocent, and started to walk away. Then he stopped at the threshold, turned back for a second.

“Be careful,” were his last words before he was skipping off down the corridor.


End file.
